Say Nothing

by Patrick Radden Keefe

  As she stood at the checkout: The authorities released the CCTV video, including this image. See ‘Marian Price Sentenced for Massereene Attack Phone Link’, Irish Times, 7 January 2014.

  It was Marian Price: ‘Old Bailey Bomber “Bought Phone Real IRA Used to Claim Murder of Soldiers”’, Guardian, 19 November 2013.

  ‘Armed struggle does have a place’: ‘Republicans’ Defiant Dame Warns of War’, Observer, 4 February 2001.

  Marian was ultimately charged: ‘Old Bailey Bomber Marian Price on New Charge’, Guardian, 22 July 2011.

  There was another charge: ‘Old Bailey Bomber Charged over Dissident Threats to Police’, Irish Times, 16 May 2011.

  While he recited: ‘Marian Price and the Lost Document’, Irish Times, 18 February 2012.

  For the next two years: ‘Republican Marian Price Reveals Horror of Seven Months’ Solitary Confinement in Prison’, Sunday World, 18 December 2011.

  Dolours was distraught: ‘Jailed Republican Price in Legal Limbo Despite Her Illness’, Irish Times, 21 July 2012.

  ‘victim of psychological torture’: Ibid.

  The very month: ‘Irish Eyes Are Smiling: Show of Respect Turns Queen into Runaway Favourite’, Guardian, 19 May 2011.

  A former schoolmate of Dolours’s: P-EM.

  She welcomed the historic: ‘Major Terror Alert As Queen Visits Ireland’, Daily Express, 17 May 2011.

  Marian was still in prison: ‘“Historic Handshake” for Queen and Ex-IRA Leader Martin McGuinness’, Independent, 26 June 2012.

  ‘They must make a verdict’: ‘Paisley and McGuinness Mark New Era’, Guardian, 8 May 2007.

  ‘It never has been’: ‘Republican Marian Price Reveals Horror of Seven Months’ Solitary Confinement in Prison’, Sunday World, 18 December 2011.

  ‘another generation’: ‘Republicans’ Defiant Dame Warns of War’, Observer, 4 February 2001.

  a poster girl of the truly dire years: Interview with Eamonn McCann.

  At the hearing: ‘Marian Price Sentenced for Massereene Attack Phone Link’, Irish Times, 7 January 2014.

  And she spent hours: Interview with Eamonn McCann; ‘Republican Marian Price Reveals Horror of Seven Months’ Solitary Confinement in Prison’, Sunday World, 18 December 2011.

  Armed with the Boston College interviews: ‘Corporals’ Killer Arrested over McConville Murder’, Irish News, 3 April 2014; ‘MLA’s Sister Released in McConville Investigation’, Irish News, 11 April 2014; ‘Sinn Féin Candidate Quizzed About Jean McConville Murder’, Irish News, 19 April 2014.

  Only one person had actually been charged: ‘Republican Charged in Connection with 1972 McConville Murder’, Irish News, 22 March 2014.

  emeritus professor of political optics: ‘The Jean McConville Killing: I’m Completely Innocent. But What Are My Accusers’ Motives?’ Guardian, 7 May 2014.

  Adams glided into the station: Ibid.

  ‘for a kind of score settling reason’: ‘IRA Bomber Says Gerry Adams Sanctioned Mainland Bombing Campaign’, Telegraph, 23 September 2012.

  ‘what they’d been driven to do’: ‘Disillusioned Republicans Breached IRA’s Code of Secrecy’, Irish Times, 7 November 2013.

  ‘I wanted very much’: ‘IRA Bomber Says Gerry Adams Sanctioned Mainland Bombing Campaign’, Telegraph, 23 September 2012.

  ‘numerous rumours’: ‘Gerry Adams Interview: No Parade Unless the Residents Support One’, Irish News, 11 February 2010.

  But in his own memoir: This exchange is taken from The Disappeared, directed by Alison Millar (BBC Northern Ireland, 2013).

  ‘if you don’t ask, you can’t tell’: Ibid.

  In 2009, a woman named Áine Tyrrell: ‘Adams’ Brother Sought over Alleged Abuse’, RTÉ News, 19 December 2009.

  In an interview on the programme: Ibid.

  In fact, Liam Adams: ‘Adams Said RUC Should Not Be Used over Abuse’, Irish Times, 22 December 2009.

  Gerry would subsequently claim: ‘Adams’ Paedophile Brother Was Youth Worker in Dundalk’, Sunday Tribune, 20 December 2009.

  But by the time he did so: ‘Adams Is a Liability with Much to Explain’, The Times, 27 December 2009.

  ‘culture of concealment’: ‘Gerry Adams Reveals Family’s Abuse by Father’, Guardian, 20 December 2009.

  Áine Tyrrell would later allege: ‘Gerry Adams’ Niece Reveals: “The Beard Tried to Get Me to Gag Press over Abuse”’, Belfast Telegraph, 7 October 2013.

  ‘would provide a follow-up’: ‘Adams Is a Liability with Much to Explain’, The Times, 27 December 2009.

  even in the antic, bloody days of late 1972: Confidential interview.

  ‘would have had to sit and thrash it out’: P-EM.

  In the police station at Antrim: ‘The Jean McConville Killing: I’m Completely Innocent. But What Are My Accusers’ Motives?’ Guardian, 7 May 2014.

  ‘a crutch to withstand their inquisition’: Adams, Before the Dawn, p.191.

  When it emerged that Adams had effectively covered: ‘Adams’ Family Values Strip Him of All Moral Authority’, Sunday Tribune, 27 December 2009.

  ‘an embittered rump of the old RUC’: ‘Gerry Adams Arrested: Martin McGuinness Speaks at Falls Road Rally Demanding Sinn Féin Leader’s Release’, Belfast Telegraph, 3 May 2014.

  With Divis Tower visible: Footage of the 3 May 2014 rally, An Phoblacht video news.

  It was Bobby Storey: Footage of 3 May 2014 rally, Sky News. On his being the enforcer: ‘IRA Calls in Peace “Fixer”’, The Times, 8 January 1995.

  He had joined the IRA: ‘“Big Bobby”: Arrests, Interrogations, Imprisonment, and Struggle – the “Storey” of His Life’, An Phoblacht, 18 December 2008.

  In fact, he was reputed: ‘“Key Spymaster” a Crucial Adams Ally’, Irish News, 1 November 2007; ‘We Will Defend the Integrity of the Republican Struggle: Interview with Bobby Storey’, Hot Press, 12 June 2009. Storey’s home was raided after the break-in. See ‘Bobby Storey: “Enforcer” is Key Ally of Gerry Adams’, Belfast Telegraph, 6 May 2014.

  Storey was also widely: ‘We Will Defend the Integrity of the Republican Struggle: Interview with Bobby Storey’, Hot Press, 12 June 2009; ‘Bobby Storey: “Enforcer” is Key Ally of Gerry Adams’, Belfast Telegraph, 6 May 2014.

  It was the largest bank robbery: ‘10 Facts About the IRA’s £26.5m raid on Northern Bank’, Belfast Telegraph, 19 December 2014.

  ‘Call me old fashioned’: Dolours Price, ‘Money … Money … Money’, The Blanket, 17 January 2005.

  But he had the mien of a thug: For a vivid illustration of this side of Storey’s personality, see Malachi O’Doherty, The Trouble with Guns: Republican Strategy and the Provisional IRA (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1998), pp.1–3.

  ‘dare touch our party leader’: Footage of the 3 May 2014 rally, BBC News.

  ‘We ain’t gone away, you know’: Ibid.

  Storey was quoting: ‘Sinn Féin Hints at Possible Renewal of IRA Violence’, Associated Press, 14 August 1995.

  The McConville children: Detective Inspector Peter Montgomery to Joe Mulholland & Co Solicitors, 21 October 2013.

  an unambiguous threat: Interview with Michael McConville.

  Mackers, too, saw pure menace: Interview with Anthony McIntyre.

  With rhetoric like Storey’s: Interview with Richard O’Rawe.

  A new epithet: Interview with Anthony McIntyre, interview with Richard O’Rawe.

  ‘good people into touts’: ‘The Boston Time Bomb’, Sunday Life, 11–13 May 2014.

  Mackers had instructed: Interview with Anthony McIntyre and Carrie Twomey; ‘Ex-Provo’s Life Is at Risk Over IRA Tapes Row, Court to Be Told’, Belfast Telegraph, 5 July 2012.

  ‘There was a sustained’: ‘The Jean McConville Killing: I’m Completely Innocent. But What Are My Accusers’ Motives?’ Guardian, 7 May 2014.

  ‘which formed the mainstay’: ‘Boston College Says It Will Return Interviews about the North’, Irish Times, 7 May 2014.

  ‘It’s finished’: ‘Gerry Adams Freed in Jean
McConville Murder Inquiry’, BBC News, 4 May 2014.

  the PSNI forwarded a file on him: Ibid.

  ‘I will not lose a night’s sleep over it’: ‘Jailed Republican Price in Legal Limbo Despite Her Illness’, Irish Times, 21 July 2012.

  On the day she died: ‘Dolours Price-Rea Died from Prescription Drugs Mix’, Irish Times, 15 April 2014.

  When he came back that evening: Ibid.

  A postmortem: Ibid.

  She was sixty-two: The many obituaries asserting that Price died at sixty-one are based on an erroneous date of birth. She was born on 16 December 1950.

  In 1975, when the Price sisters: ‘IRA Leaders at Price Funeral’, Irish Press, 19 February 1975.

  the authorities allowed Marian: ‘Marian Price Released to Attend Sister’s Wake’, Irish Times, 28 January 2013. In a gesture ripe with irony, lawyers for Marian, in seeking her release, summoned a doctor to testify about the emotional trauma that can arise when one is denied the opportunity to properly grieve following the death of a loved one. Interview with Darragh Mackin.

  The following day, black flags: ‘Old Bailey Bomber Dolours Price Buried in Belfast’, Irish Times, 29 January 2013.

  ‘A baptismal name’: Angela Nelson, ‘L’Addio a Dolours Price’, The Five Demands blog, 29 January 2013.

  He recalled her early years: ‘Dolours Price-Rea Died from Prescription Drugs Mix’, Irish Times, 15 April 2014.

  He pointed out that forty years earlier: Nelson, ‘L’Addio a Dolours Price’.

  ‘It broke our hearts and it broke our bodies’: ‘Crying Pain for Stephen; Actor’s Farewell to Dolours’, Daily Mirror, 29 January 2013.

  ‘If Dolours had a big fault’: ‘Old Bailey Bomber Price Buried’, Belfast Telegraph, 29 January 2013.

  ‘we are imprisoned within ideals’: ‘Crying Pain for Stephen; Actor’s Farewell to Dolours’, Daily Mirror, 29 January 2013.

  ‘the self-destructive nature of her condition’: ‘Dolours Price-Rea Died from Prescription Drugs Mix’, Irish Times, 15 April 2014.

  ‘They committed suicide for years’: Interview with Carrie Twomey.

  ‘death by misadventure’: ‘Dolours Price-Rea Died from Prescription Drugs Mix’, Irish Times, 15 April 2014.

  When the graveside orations: ‘Crying Pain for Stephen; Actor’s Farewell to Dolours’, Daily Mirror, 29 January 2013; ‘Hundreds of Mourners Crowd Church As Actor Stephen Rea and Sons Carry Coffin of Dolours Price’, Irish Independent, 28 January 2013.

  Chapter 29: This Is the Past

  ‘much reduced form’: ‘Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland’, assessment commissioned by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (19 October 2015).

  ‘Adams dismissed the report as ‘nonsense’: ‘Gerry Adams Rejects Reports on IRA Existence’, Irish Examiner, 22 October 2015.

  ‘men and women in balaclavas’: ‘Gerry Moriarty: Robinson Gambles That Adams and McGuinness Can Finally Make the IRA Go Away’, Irish Times, 21 October 2015.

  But the truth was that most residents: Segregated Lives: Social Division, Sectarianism and Everyday Life in Northern Ireland, Institute for Conflict Research, 2008; ‘Liam Neeson in Call for More Integrated Schools’, BBC News, 8 February 2017.

  But the talks foundered: Interview with Richard Haass.

  When the Belfast City Council voted: ‘Flag Protesters Storm Belfast City Hall’, Irish Examiner, 3 December 2012; ‘Union Flag Dispute: Riot Breaks Out in East Belfast’, BBC News, 15 January 2013.

  ‘A decision has now been taken’: ‘Ivor Bell to Be Prosecuted over Jean McConville Murder’, Irish Times, 4 June 2015.

  He had trouble climbing: ‘Ivor Bell Remanded over Jean McConville Murder’, RTÉ, 24 March 2014.

  They worked intimately together: Moloney, Secret History of the IRA, p.242.

  Bell was a great proponent of physical force: Ibid., p.14.

  Bell grew concerned: Ibid., pp.242–43.

  So Bell retreated from the movement: Ibid., pp.244–45.

  ‘Go and ask Gerry’: H-BC.

  In court, a prosecutor suggested: ‘Forms to Identify Interview Tapes “Lost”’, Irish News, 8 May 2014.

  The charges against Bell: ‘Ex-IRA Chief Granted Extended Bail from Jean McConville Trial’, Guardian, 14 October 2016.

  ‘totally inadmissible’: ‘Voice Analyst Enlisted in Jean McConville Murder Case’, Irish Times, 30 October 2014.

  ‘unreliable and subjective’: ‘Bell Lawyer Claims Boston Tapes Are Unreliable and Inaccurate’, Irish News, 7 June 2014.

  his client hadn’t even been in Belfast: Ibid.

  Anthony McIntyre knew exactly who Z was: ‘Forms to Identify Interview Tapes “Lost”’, Irish News, 8 May 2014.

  ‘Is the person on the tape Ivor Bell?’: ‘Ivor Bell to Be Prosecuted over Jean McConville Murder’, Irish Times, 4 June 2015.

  the prosecutors announced: ‘Voice Analyst Enlisted in Jean McConville Murder Case’, Irish Time, 30 October 2014.

  Experts in ‘forensic phonetics’: This is a decidedly imperfect science. See ‘Voice Analysis Should Be Used with Caution in Court’, Scientific American, 25 January 2017.

  Besides, the context: ‘Jean McConville Murder: Veteran Republican Ivor Bell to Stand Trial’, Belfast Telegraph, 7 July 2016.

  If you listen to the recording: ‘Ivor Bell Remanded over Jean McConville Murder’, RTÉ, 24 March 2014.

  A PSNI detective who had also: Ibid.

  But the director of public prosecutions: ‘Revolutionary Appointment Reflects “Transformation” in Northern Society’, Irish Times, 3 December 2011.

  The PSNI official who signed off: ‘Profile: Drew Harris of the PSNI’, Belfast Telegraph, 20 September 2014. In June 2018, Harris was appointed commissioner of the Garda, the police force in the Republic of Ireland.

  After prosecutors listened: ‘Adams Won’t Be Charged over Jean McConville Murder’, Irish News, 10 July 2015.

  Would the British soldiers who shot unarmed civilians: ‘McConville Accused Calls in Voice Analyst’, Irish News, 31 October 2014.

  PSNI had a ‘legacy’ unit: Interview with Mark Hamilton; ‘Figures Dismiss Army “Witch Hunt” Allegations’, Irish News, 27 January 2017.

  ‘When this crime happened, I was a baby’: Interview with Mark Hamilton.

  ‘With both the passage of time’: ‘“No Stone to Be Left Unturned” in Stakeknife Probe’, RTÉ, 11 June 2016.

  Scappaticci was still in hiding: ‘Top Spy “Stakeknife” Allegedly Linked to 50 Killings “Unlikely to Ever Face Prosecution”’, Irish Independent, 27 April 2016.

  ‘He is currently in custody at an undisclosed location’: ‘“IRA Informer” Fred Scappaticci Arrested over Dozens of Murders’, Independent, 30 January 2018.

  Scappaticci was released without charges: ‘Man Believed to Have Been IRA Double Agent “Stakeknife” Released on Bail’, Guardian, 2 February 2018.

  Perhaps he had a cache of secret evidence: ‘How, and Why, Did Scappaticci Survive the IRA’s Wrath?’ Irish Times, 15 April 2017.

  When his father died, in the spring of 2017: Interview with Henry McDonald.

  led by the family ice cream van: ‘Freddie Scappaticci’s Father Laid to Rest in Belfast’, Irish News, 13 April 2017.

  In the vacuum of accountability: Interview with Kevin Winters.

  The families of numerous victims: ‘Stakeknife: Alleged One-Time Top British Agent Inside IRA Facing At Least 9 Separate Lawsuits’, Belfast Telegraph, 13 December 2016.

  a ‘jolly good’ unit: ‘Soldiers Who Shot 13 Dead “Not Thugs”’, Guardian, 24 September 2002.

  Lately, he had been assisting his wife: ‘Lady Elizabeth Kitson OBE of Yelverton Writes a Book About Her Famous Show Pony Legend’, Tavistock Times Gazette, 22 August 2016.

  A woman named Mary Heenan sued: ‘Widow Seeks Damages Relating to Claims against British General Frank Kitson’, Irish Times, 30 April 2015.

  ‘reckless as to whether state agents would be involved’: Statement of Claim, Mary Heena
n v. Ministry of Defence and Chief Constable of Police Service of Northern Ireland and General Sir Frank Edward Kitson, High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, Queen’s Bench Division (2015).

  ‘a year younger than me’: ‘Widow Seeks Damages Relating to Claims against British General Frank Kitson’, Irish Times, 30 April 2015.

  a mere commander of troops: Defence of Third Defendant, Mary Heenan v. Ministry of Defence and Chief Constable of Police Service of Northern Ireland and General Sir Frank Edward Kitson, High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, Queen’s Bench Division (24 December 2017).

  ‘We never instigated’: ‘Army General Sued over 1973 Loyalist Murder’, Telegraph, 27 April 2015.

  When police and prosecutors pursued cases: ‘Northern Ireland Troubles Army Veterans Slam “Witch Hunt”’, Belfast Telegraph, 12 December 2017.

  no ‘imbalance of approach’: ‘Cases against Terrorist Suspects Far Outweigh Ones Involving Ex-Army and Police, PPS Insists’, Belfast Telegraph, 31 January 2017.

  ‘hierarchy of victims’: See Susan McKay, Bear in Mind These Dead (London: Faber, 2008), part II, chap. 3.

  the ‘ideal victim’: Bill Rolston, Unfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth (Belfast: Beyond the Pale, 2000), p.xi.

  ‘The designation stops at the border of each tribe’: Cited in Alain Finkielkraut, In the Name of Humanity: Reflections on the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), pp.5–6.

  ‘ignoring the tapes of the UVF members’: ‘Boston College Tapes Request “Politically Motivated”’, BBC News, 25 August 2011.

  The police obtained a new subpoena: ‘Winston “Winkie” Rea to Be Charged over 1991 Murder of Two Catholic Workmen’, Belfast Telegraph, 28 November 2016.

  When he showed up in court to deny the charges: ‘Loyalist Winston Rea Denies Conspiracy to Murder Catholic Men and Paramilitary Activity’, Irish News, 24 October 2017.

  ‘the token Prod’: ‘Ulster Loyalist’s Murder Case “a Cynical Attempt to Protect Police”’, Guardian, 6 June 2016.

  ‘I would describe the PSNI stance’: Anthony McIntyre interview on the podcast Off the Record, 27 February 2015.

  ‘I won’t go into any detail’: Detective Chief Inspector Peter Montgomery, PSNI, to the Public Prosecution Service, 9 February 2015.